Why Skype Saved Our Wedding, Pt 1

I imagine the "what is the point of Twitter" questions will never cease. I hear them at least once a week, and The New Yorker has no want for old-fashioned writers and their quibbles about teens texting and twittering their every waking moment ("just woke up" "just ate breakfast" "just finished breakfast"). And as long as those criticisms drag on, I'll continue to tell the site's cynics about the hundreds of amazing people who 2E's and I have met since September, people we never would have met otherwise....

...people like Elif at My Big Day Planning. Elif messaged me during the Irish Curse run and came out to see one of our performances on a whim. Exchanging post-show emails, we talked about how she could help fill the gaps in our own planning. My Big Day does consulting of all kinds, from engagement parties to ceremonies, from tenting and draping to catering and tasting. But where 2E's and I need the most hand-holding, we discovered, is not with pre-event services but with on-site, day-of services. We anticipate being an absolute mess that weekend. That week. Both of us. Two absolute messes sweating through their formal-wear.

Because Elif is located in New York, and we're ... well ... not, we decided to have our introductory meeting over Skype, the free video and voice software that made AIM look like child's play and led, undoubtedly, to the chatroulette phenomenon.

The verdict? I love Skype. Never have. Now I do. Why?  Simple. It's just as convenient as meeting for coffee, except that the coffee is brewed in the comfort of your own home, and you don't even have to shower. 2E's poured herself a cup of joe, and I spritzed my hair to give the impression that I'd bathed recently.

In all seriousness, we can't be more thrilled to have My Big Day on what we are now referring to as our Kick-ass Wedding Team. We have no doubt assembled an awesome crew of talented wedding peeps to help us execute this thing, and Elif is no exception. We sent her what documents and schedules we had, and she asked us to walk her through October 2nd from beginning to end. Occasionally she'd jump in with a Have you thought about this, which of course we hadn't, or a You could do this instead, which of course would be a far superior option to the one we'd originally planned on.

We were like Skype sponges, adhering to the glass around our built-in webcam, soaking up any bit of advice we could steal. We expressed some concerns we'd had, like, We don't have anyone to take care of this thing, and she'd say, calmly, Oh, we'll do that. We'll cover that. We'll handle that. Apparently Elif was sitting in front of her personal computer in such a way that we couldn't see her 16 pairs of arms.

How do people like this accomplish as much as they do?? And how come we are NOTHING like that???

 Actual Skype Sponges

The best thing is that Elif and all 32 of her arms (and her consulting company/army) are prepared to guide us through the rest of our planning process, answer any pestering questions that may arise between now and October and point out all 600 things that we'll undoubtedly overlook. And serve as a constant reminder of precisely how kick-ass our Kick-ass Wedding Team is, which is very. Kick-ass.